Foodie Friday -- Razzle Dazzle Berry Tart

Razzle Dazzle Berry Tart (yes, I named it!)

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that I can’t make a pie crust worth a darn. Usually I manage to convince my sister-in-law to do it for me, but as she wasn’t here yesterday, I forged ahead and pieced together a mess that I’ll call a crust.

This recipe is a combination of about four recipes (the crust is partially from The Pioneer Woman who got it from someone else. I didn’t have enough shortening, so I used butter. The filling and streusel topping were a combination of Bon Appetit and my improvising.), and a few changes, because I didn’t have the necessary ingredients. Feel free to mix and match whatever ingredients you want to make a ‘new’ pie!

Razzle Dazzle Berry Tart

Crust:

13 Tbls. Crisco shortening
11 Tbls. butter
(As long as you have 1 ½ cups of a fat, you should be good!)
3 cups flour
1 egg
5 Tbls. cold water
1 Tbls. white vinegar
1 tsp. salt

Filling:

1 cup sugar
3-4 Tbls. cornstarch
2-3 cups blackberries
2-3 cups blueberries
2-3 cups strawberries
1-2 Tbls. crème de cassis

Topping:

½ cup finely chopped pecans
½ cup oats
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup flour
6 Tbls. butter, chilled and cut into cubes

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

For Crust:

In large bowl, cut butter and shortening into the flour with a pastry cutter until it resembles coarse meal (about 3-4 minutes). Beat egg in small bowl and pour onto flour mixture. Add water, vinegar and salt; stir gently until all ingredients are incorporated.
Separate dough into thirds*, press each into disk, place each disk into Ziploc-type bag and freeze for 20 minutes. If using dough at a later date, thaw 15 minutes before rolling out.
On a floured surface, place dough and flour. Flour rolling pin and roll dough out into a circle starting from the center, rotating dough as you work.
(Yeah, I suck at this part, so just do your best and learn to patch . . .)
With metal spatula, loosen dough from work surface and fold in half. Lift and place in pan. Unfold dough and press into pan, fold edges under and crimp a pretty edge. (Yeah, like I could ever make this happen!) Patch if necessary.

For Filling:

Mix sugar and cornstarch together. Slice strawberries into chunks and mix with blackberries and blueberries. Toss with sugar mixture. Sprinkle with crème de cassis. Gently place berries into prepared crust.

For Topping:

Mix all ingredients together. Rub butter into mixture with your fingers until it resembles a coarse meal. Sprinkle over berries.

Bake until bubbly about 55-70 minutes. Lightly cover crust and topping with foil if it browns too quickly. Let cool on rack about 2-3 hours.

Hints & Suggestions:

·         If you use a tart pan, wrap the outside of the pan with foil to keep the juices from leaking through seam

·         As an added precaution, I place tart pan on cookie sheet, which in turn, might increase the cooking time just a little.

·         *Dividing the dough into thirds would have worked well for an 8-inch pie, but it rolled out too thin for the deep dish tart pan I used.

·         The pastry was slightly too greasy. Next time I’ll probably cut back on the butter.

·         The berries juiced just a little bit more than I expected, and I could have used another tablespoon of cornstarch

·         Of course, you can use any combination of berries you would like or happen to have around. Mix and match, ya know.

·         I prefer cornstarch as it doesn’t leave the gummy, graininess texture that using flour as a thickener does sometimes

·         Tapioca can be used as a thickener, but the berries weren’t juicy enough for that. Plus . . . fish eggs? Really? I know they aren’t fish eggs, but I dislike everything about tapioca.

·         The sugar in the filling can be too much if your berries are really sweet and ripe. Taste them before sugar them and decrease the sugar if needed. The blackberries were ones I picked last year and I knew they were on the tart side.  

       I'm always amazed that the huge pile of berries flattens out to so little when you cook them. Pile on the berries!

·        Since this was a deep dish pie, I baked it about 70 minutes. BUT I did check it in five minute intervals after it cooked for 55 minute, as I wanted to keep an eye on the process. I also rotated the cookie sheet to keep the browning even.

·         Considering the pie was still very warm, I’m surprised the let it sit two hours without cutting into it.

 

Enjoy!